


Seventh Wheeling

by Swump (Zelan)



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Gen, Langst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-13
Updated: 2017-07-13
Packaged: 2018-12-01 12:22:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 952
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11486304
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zelan/pseuds/Swump
Summary: So I see lots of fics where Lance refers to himself as a seventh wheel and I’m actually getting a bit tired of the phrase. So of course what better to do than write a prompt entirely centered around it.





	Seventh Wheeling

Shiro grunted as Keith managed to land a kick on his left side, but the red paladin wasn't so successful when he tried to to land a punch on his right. Shiro whipped his metal arm up to block the blow. He felt a pang of sympathy when Keith winced upon smashing his fist directly into the unyielding metal, but before he could dwell on it he lunged at his opponent and was able to pin the lighter boy to the ground. Keith struggled for a few seconds, but Shiro was unrelenting, and eventually Keith sighed in defeat.

"All right, you win," he conceded. The two disentangled themselves and stood, Keith pointedly refusing the hand that Shiro reached out to help him up. Unbothered, Shiro let it fall to his side and turned to face the other paladins.

"That's enough training for today," he announced. Shiro and Keith were both pink-faced and breathing hard, and the others, who had been sitting back to watch the spar, were still drenched in sweat from before. The others - excluding Lance.

Lance sat back with a gloomy expression on his face, having only watched that day's training. As the other four paladins stretched and started making their ways toward their rooms to change out of their armor, the blue paladin hung back. Shiro was the first to notice that he hadn't yet stood.

"Lance? What's the matter?" he asked gently, walking over to sit across from him.

Lance answered with a touch of impatience. "The same thing that's been bothering me for the past week, that's what. It's not rocket science, Shiro."

The uncharacteristic snappishness caught Shiro off-guard, but he supposed that it was no surprise considering the circumstances; Lance was still recovering from a nasty infection from a wound he had sustained in an earlier battle. For some mysterious reason, the large gash along the blue paladin's torso had reacted badly to the healing pod, effectively putting Lance out of commission.

The injured and irritable paladin now stood stiffly, beginning to stalk off to be alone in his room. But Shiro felt that it wouldn't be right to just let him go. "Lance, wait," he called. "Talk to me here. I know you're tired of missing training and probably in some pain, but you're nearly healed. I don't understand why you're still so upset."

For a moment Shiro thought Lance wouldn't answer him, but to his surprise and relief, the boy sighed and the tension seemed to drain out of him. Without turning to look at Shiro, he muttered, "I just feel so useless sitting around."

"You aren't useless," Shiro reassured him. "You're just recovering, that's all."

Some of Lance's anger returned and he glared at Shiro over his shoulder. "I should never have gotten hurt in the first place!" he yelled, eyes blazing. "And then all the crap with the pod on top of that, who knows, but I'll bet that had something to do with me, too, like I didn't mention something or I was positioned wrong or _something_."

The outburst rendered Shiro speechless. He opened his mouth, floundering about for something to say, but the words wouldn't come to him. After an awkward pause, Lance sighed. "I'm sorry for snapping, but it's the truth. I'm the least valuable member of the team." As he turned away again and headed for the doorway, he muttered, so quietly that Shiro almost didn't catch it, "I'm just a seventh wheel."

At that, Shiro strode forward and clamped his flesh hand firmly on Lance's shoulder. "Lance. Look at me."

Despite the fact that Lance was done - done with never quite being perfect, done with trying his hardest only to screw up, done with listening to false reassurances - something in Shiro's voice made him turn, albeit slowly due to his aching torso. Silently, he and the black paladin looked one another in the eyes. 

Shiro hadn't known exactly what he was going to say, but he knew that he had to say something, couldn't leave this hanging between him and Lance. And when the two met eyes, he felt like he could read the barest hint of younger boy's turmoiled emotions - enough for him to realize what needed to be said.

"And what's so bad about being a seventh wheel?" he asked softly.

Lance blinked - that was not at all what he had expected to hear. "I - well - it's not a good thing," he stammered out, thrown by the question.

"Look, neither one of us is an engineer, but I think we have enough engineering friends that we can say with certainty: nothing in any design is ever unnecessary. If someone builds a vehicle with seven wheels, you can bet it wasn't tossed in there just because they had some extra parts lying around. Maybe it's essential for balance, maybe for traction, I don't know, but that vehicle would not run the same, and it would not run _well_ , without that seventh wheel."

Lance opened his mouth, looking like he wanted to argue, but Shiro plowed on. "You are essential to this team, Lance. You're one of the best shots that I've ever seen, you're determined on and off the battlefield, and quiznak, you're just plain fun to be around. If you were gone, the team would suffer, I guarantee it."

Lance was quiet now, mulling over Shiro's words. After a long stretch of silence, he finally asked, "You really think so?"

Shiro nodded. "Yeah, I do, buddy. And any of the others would be telling you the same if they'd hung around."

A small smile curved Lance's lips. "Okay, then. From now on I'll remember that Voltron has seven wheels."

Shiro grinned back. "You do that."

**Author's Note:**

> By the time I got done with this I realized it was sort of similar to that one quote from The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick that’s like “the world’s a machine so everything’s necessary” (Hugo, slightly paraphrased), which is cool because that’s one of my favorite quotes.


End file.
